Say It With Flowers
by Lattelady
Summary: Cain and DG romance. DG needs some advice and goes to the one place where she might find it. 3rd place winner and Moderator's Choice winner in the Color Yellow Challeng at TM Challenges on LJ


**Rating: **PG

**Pairing: **Cain/DG

**Disclaimer: **I don't own 'em

**Notes: **Written for the color challenge at LJ Tin Man Challenge. The picture prompt was Black-Eyed Susans blowing in the breeze.

**Say It With Flowers**

**By **_**Lattelady**_

The first time was pure impulse.

The princesses had arrived at Finaqua three days earlier. The Queen had granted them two weeks of rest, after the hectic seven months since the defeat of the Witch. It was Cain's day off. He'd planned to take his son to one of the distant lakes to fish. DG wasn't sure how she'd convinced Glitch to go with her, but she had.

She knew she couldn't pull it off under the watchful eyes of her Tin Man. He understood her too well or maybe it was simply that she couldn't lie to him. When he came to say good-bye for the day, she gave him a kiss, but didn't walk with him to the stables as she usually did. He was too observant and she was too nervous. 

Once he'd ridden out she and Glitch mounted up and took off. They needed as much time as they could, if they were going to ride almost as far as the Crack and return before Wyatt did. Az had reluctantly agreed to run interference if anyone asked any questions.

* * *

"Wait here and watch the horses." The Princess's eyes begged her friend not to argue with her.

"You going to be all right if I do, Doll?" Since his brains had been reunited Glitch had a serious side and knew when to use it. This was one of those times. 

"Yeah, I've got to do this alone." She took the bag that was tied to her saddle and carefully walked up the hill to the deserted cottage. No one had been there since before the eclipse and it looked dark and forlorn. 

"Oh Adora, why don't either of them come here?" she sighed as she knelt to unpack her supplies. First was a large bouquet of yellow flowers, followed by clippers and work gloves. She'd raided the grounds keeper's shed at Finaqua the night before and was very glad she had. Adora Cain's grave was in a sad state of neglect. 

Deeg carefully weeded the area around the marker and then worked outward. That's how she found Cain's badge. It was tangled in overgrowth and half buried in dirt. If she hadn't seen him leave it behind, she wouldn't have been sure what she was looking at. The small tin star was faded and discolored. It wasn't anything like the proud symbol it had once been. She put it beside her other things and went on with her work.

Once she'd gotten all the weeds pulled and removed any sticks or branches that had been blown down from the trees by the spring storms, she trimmed the grass with hand clippers.

"That looks much better," she sighed. "Now what to do with this?" she murmured as she picked up the small piece of tin and held it gently in her clasped hands. After giving it a few moments thought, she closed her eyes and focused her light. Her palms tingled and she opened them. The star was returned to its former shining glory. "If it would only be so easy with Wyatt and Jeb," she wished. 

Deeg added a bit more magic and then pressed her hand against the grave marker, directly under Adora's name. When the girl sat back on her knees, to survey her work, it made her feel good inside. The sparkle of metal against wood caught the afternoon suns, bringing their warm rays to this small dark corner of the O.Z. The badge was frozen forever in place. The magic would protect it.

"There." She nodded with satisfaction. "It will always be with you. Anyone who comes this way will know and understand that you were loved by a Tin Man," her voice broke and she took deep breaths to regain her control. Her hand only shook slightly as she picked up the beautiful flowers she'd brought. DG ran one finger down a delicate yellow petal and over the black thicker center of the daisy-like blossom. 

"We called these Black-Eyed Susans on the Other Side. I'm not sure if they have a different name here." She laid the bouquet on the grave and smiled sadly. "They were mom's favorites. Not my mother the Queen, but the woman I think of as mom, the one who raised me, the…ah…nurture unit..." Even after all that time, it was hard for her to think of Emily and Hank as anything but her parents, to her they were real.

"I need your help, Adora." She sat in the grass with one hand resting on the grave, the other on the marker. "Your men are having a hard time. Jeb is angry and bitter. No matter how hard his dad tries to get close, that boy pushes him away.

"He…Wyatt is having problems too. At first when we freed him from that suit, he was hard and cold, almost as if he was dead inside, but he changed. He took heart again and tried to teach that lesson to your son. It was working too, until about a month ago when it all went sideways." Deeg blinked quickly to get her emotions under control.

"That part is my fault, Adora. You see I fell in love with my…your…our…Tin Man. I didn't mean to, I really didn't, but I just couldn't help it." She smiled sadly because that was something she had in common with the dead woman. "I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. He's really easy to love. But Jeb doesn't understand. He saw Wyatt kiss me a few weeks ago and has been hard on his father ever since." She didn't bother to add that the boy had been avoiding her. No one, not even a dead woman was going to hear about that.

"Deeg," Glitch shouted from the distance. "We've got to leave soon if we're to get back in time." 

"I'll be there in a sec," she called over her shoulder. She knew exactly what he meant, they had to get on the road or Wyatt would beat them back to Finaqua and then there would be hell to pay.

The Princess carefully gathered her things and repacked her bag. "Enjoy your flowers, Adora. I'll come back when I can. Please believe that I love Wyatt very much and won't do anything that would hurt him. I understand Jeb has to come first in his life." 

* * *

Three months and four visits later, DG climbed the hill to the cottage under the big white elm. Glitch stayed with the horses without being asked. 

"Well, Adora, it's you and me again." Deeg weeded and clipped as she talked. The bouquet of flowers she always brought lying beside her bag. "Jeb has a girlfriend. She's a pretty red-head that he knew in the resistance. I've seen them holding hands when they go for walks in the moonlight. I don't think Wyatt knows yet," she laughed softly at the secret she was sharing with a woman she'd never met.

"I wish I could tell you that everything was all right with your men, but it still isn't. Even though Jeb has fallen in love, he has problems accepting that Wyatt may care for me." 

"Princess," a cool familiar voice called to her, as a tall silhouette blocked out the suns. 

"Tin Man," she squeaked, knowing she'd been caught. She turned and saw him standing less than a foot away. His duster blowing in the breeze and his hat held in his left hand. His face was shadowed and golden rays sparked off his light hair. "How did you know?"

"Glitch told me." He knelt beside her and wrapped his arms around her from behind.

"He said he wouldn't betray me!" 

"I guess that all depends on your definition of the word." He held her close while he looked with amazement at the care she'd taken with Adora's grave. "I've known since the first time, that you were going off and hiding something from me. Zipperhead and Azkadellia threatened me with dire consequences if I pushed you about it. She's very good at imitating the Witch when she gets angry." He smirked at the memory of how protective the older sister had been of the younger one. "They assured me you were safe. Glitch went so far as to say he'd protect you with his life."

"Have you followed us each time?" She hated that he might have overheard some of the private conversations she'd had with Adora. She'd poured out her heart, thinking she was alone and safe and maybe, just maybe if the dead did look after the living, there was a chance of happiness to be found. 

"No, Glitch came knocking on my door late last night." Cain ran his hand through the back of her hair. He knew it soothed her and from the information he'd learned the night before, she needed all the soothing she could get.

"Why now after all these months?" She turned to look him in the eyes. There was something that he wasn't telling her.

"Az came with him to see me."

"Oh…" the word slipped out on a breath.

"She made me realize I've been careless with you." He cupped her cheeks so she couldn't look away. "I've been so focused on my son, that I almost lost you because I thought I had all the time in the world."

"She told you what the Witch did to her?" Deeg couldn't believe her sister had spoken of it to anyone, though she'd assumed that Glitch knew since he'd refused to take no for an answer when he'd proposed to the older woman. "Please don't say anything. It isn't common knowledge and the longer she and I can keep anyone from finding out, the longer I'll have to…to…" She couldn't go on, not with him looking at her with fierce emotion filling his usually cool eyes.

"I'm sorry for Az and Glitch, I know they would have liked to have had children. They would have liked to produce little girls to carry on the House of Gale, but the Witch ended any possibility of that. I guess she planned to possess Azkadellia's body forever, and she wanted to make sure there would be no Gale offspring to cause her trouble in the future. So it falls to you, to us, to produce an heir."

"It falls to me." She corrected and tried to push out of his arms. "You've given up too much already. I won't have you give up your son."

"Deeg you're not listening to me, but then I guess that's because I've never said the words you need to hear. I love you Princess and I have since almost that first week."

"But what about Jeb?"

"What about him?" Wyatt looked a bit stunned. "He's my son, but he's an adult. We'll never get back the years we lost. Some crazy sacrifice on your part won't change that." He'd always suspected she still carried guilt for what happened in that cave when she was five, but he hadn't realized how debilitating it was.

"It's not crazy! He pushes you away and I know it hurts you."

"Yeah it does, but part of that is because he's eighteen years old. At least he isn't trying to run off to Australia or what ever that place was you were planning on going to before you were tossed into a travel storm." He knew he and his son had things to work out between them, but they were slowly making progress.

"Please Wyatt, don't tease about this. I love you." She kissed him gently and rested her head on his shoulder.

"Good then that's settled." He grinned at her. "Jeb will get over it. I had eight annuals believing Adora was dead. He's only had a little over an annual and-a-half. Besides, I think he gets as antsy thinking about me with a woman, as I do when I see him with that red-head." He shuddered at the memory of a particularly passionate kiss he'd observed recently.

For the first time all afternoon DG laughed. "Do you want to help me finish up here?" She nodded to the flowers and the grave.

"Yeah, I'd like that." He smiled softly as he knelt beside Adora's grave with Deeg at his side.

The last time he'd been there he'd been a broken man, lost and filled with guilt. His Princess had brought him so much. She'd given him back his pride, his soul and his heart. And here in this once dark place she'd brought her special light, setting his past free to allow him the future he wanted.

He was going to do the same for her. 

* * *

Two months later Wyatt and DG returned to the abandoned cottage under the huge white elm. They brought a large bouquet of yellow flowers and Jeb. The younger Cain was still uncomfortable whenever he saw his father kiss the Princess. But he figured he'd better get used to it, because the Royal wedding was only a week away.

**The End**


End file.
